Window Repair
by hoshi-ni-onegai
Summary: A grumbling red head meets a blue eyed girl as he falls out of a window. AU. One-shot.


Author Notes: This is a one-shot that came to me, and I cranked it out in record time. I'm proud of myself for being able to write something that is less than twenty thousand words, but over one hundred. This is a cool 1,875 and self-contained. This will not be a series. Anyways, hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: The _Rurouni Kenshin_ world and all characters depicted are a creation of mangaka, Watsuki Nobuhiro.

**Window Repair**

By Hoshi-ni-Onegai

As part of the excessively growing community of starving poor college students, Kenshin was open to suggestion when it came to income. He couldn't be picky because he was highly unqualified for any real work until he got his bachelor's, and his good friend and roommate Sano reminded him everyday.

Sano was also the guy that for some unexplainable reason, besides being easily liked, had connections to any odd job opening around the campus area. Kenshin was nothing if not grateful for his well-connected friend, but days like these were when he wondered if skipping a few meals and cutting back on alcohol consumption was actually the answer to their money problems.

The cash he would earn today doing Sano's latest job search would leave him set all through next week, but Kenshin was not happy.

The taller man looked back at his grumpy redheaded friend of four years. "Don't be such a baby."

Kenshin frowned, "I didn't say anything."

Sano rolled his eyes, "You've been bitter since yesterday."

"I haven't said anything."

"Yeah, but you've been giving the back of my head the death glare all the way here. I may not have your sixth sense, but I know when someone is burning hole into my skull."

He continued to glare. Sano sighed and turned back around, holding up the front end of the ladder. It wasn't that the job was difficult or new. Kenshin was certain he had a hand in fixing at least one window in every building on campus. This was also not the first time he was fixing the journalism building's window. The building was notoriously old, but the romantics on the board of trustees wanted to keep the archaic building to keep with the campus' old time feel of brick buildings and stone steps.

No, Kenshin was no stranger to the repair and replacement of windows. He was, however, new and unwilling to become accustomed to the fixing of a window thirty feet up in the air at twelve degrees below zero. Yes, twelve degrees below and Fahrenheit to boot. There should have been a law, a law prohibiting outdoor manual labor if the temperature was ungodly. Kenshin was a man who believed thirty-two degrees, the exact temperature to freeze water, was enough to be considered ungodly.

Wearing two t-shirts, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a wool half-zip sweater, his warmest winter jacket, a beanie, gloves, wool socks, weatherproof boots, and thick khaki cargos were still not enough to keep the cold at bay. But he refused to complain. He just wasn't the type to whine, and he wasn't about to start now. He was, however, the type to give various ominous looks to convey his sentiments.

All that Sano could currently read was that his short friend was cold and hating his soul, but carrying the back of end of the ladder anyways.

Finally coming upon the building in question Sano pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper. "Okay, the window is on the second floor on the west side of the building. Fourth window from the right," he glanced up at the building and gave it a once over. "I guess it's that one."

Kenshin frowned, "This is the south side of the building. The west is around the corner."

Sano looked back at his friend, "Are you sure? It says the west side will have a double-door entrance. There's one right there."

"There's a double-door entrance on all but the north side. Trust me, this is the south."

The man shrugged. He couldn't say that he was an expert in cardinal directions, and his friend was not one to correct people if he wasn't certain. Bounding the corner Sano looked up at the windows. "Why do they say fourth window from the right when it's the same as the second window from the left?"

Sano went to prop the ladder up Kenshin tugged from the back. "I have a feeling that the note meant fourth window from their right inside the building, not ours."

Sano frowned and looked up at the window that Kenshin mentioned. It was obviously the window that needed repair, being that the window frame was barely holding and there was an obvious use of duct tape around the top corners.

Smirking the taller man situated the ladder to lead up to the window. "This is why I keep you around." Propping the ladder and securing it at the bottom Sano glanced at this friend before heading inside the building. "You know the drill."

Kenshin frowned; this was the reason why he was bitter. Because "the drill" that Sano mentioned dealt with him standing in the warmth of the classroom and fixing from the inside and Kenshin in the freezing cold. Sano claimed that it was because Kenshin was nimble, lighter, and better constructed to be at the top of ladders. And Sano's unspoken fear of heights was another matter.

Kenshin didn't consider himself a grumbler, but he considered this moment appropriate for some much warranted grumbling. With his tool belt hung around his waist, Kenshin made his way up. The aluminum of the ladder was icy and he could feel it through his gloves. Even with the low elevation rise of thirty feet, he could have sworn that the wind was stronger and the atmosphere thinner. He sighed, there was little he could do about it now except fix the window in record time and go home to a warm bowl of soup.

Seeing Sano on the other side of the window, he frowned. He was not securing the window or inspecting the framework. He was talking to a girl. A girl with long black hair tied up in a ponytail. Her back was facing the window and her computer screen forgotten. From what he could tell she was working through some text and various pictures from recent events around campus. Kenshin figured that this was the window to the newsroom for the college paper, and she was a reporter or editor.

Kenshin was annoyed and quite possibly pissed, not by the girl in question, but by his traitorous friend Sano who was in the comfort of the warm classroom. Judging by the height of the girl, she wasn't Megumi -his roommate's girlfriend of two years. There was no crime in talking to a girl, but Megumi wouldn't exactly be happy with the way the girl had her arm on Sano's upper arm and the smile on the bushy-haired man's face. No, she wouldn't' be happy at all. But there was only one other person who would be even angrier than Megumi, and that was Sano's freezing friend who was precariously perched on a wobbly cold ladder thirty feet in the air while Sano was sans coat and flirting.

Balancing himself on the ladder and gripping the windowsill he brought his fist up to bang on the glass. Startled by the noise, the two occupants of the room looked toward the window. Sano grinned and waived arrogantly. But what caught Kenshin's attention were the surprised blue eyes of the girl.

Her face was not familiar and the brightness of her eyes threw him off guard. He momentarily let go of the windowsill to grab a hold of the ladder, when he suddenly felt a jerking motion as it slipped out of place.

He didn't get a chance to become familiar with her face, as he felt the ladder give way underneath him. The snow that fell a week ago was compacted and slipping under the ladder. Kenshin could do nothing but curse himself for not checking if Sano secured the ladder properly. Kenshin did, however, think quickly enough to push off the building and land not on the pavement bellow, but the snow covered shrubbery off to the side. The only thing bruised was his pride.

During the commotion of falling, he had lost his beanie and his red hair was spilled out. The snow crept into the neckline of his coat, the space between his sleeve and gloves, and up the back of his many shirts. He had no idea how two tucked shirts could come free, but he supposed that Murphy's Law had something to do with it.

"Holy shit! Are you alright?" Sano's voice, which Kenshin currently found irritating, could be heard above him.

Kenshin with his eyes shut, frowned. "My neck hurts."

"You hit your neck?" There was a sense of panic laced in the voice, a voice that did not belong to his rooster haired friend.

"No, but it hurts from the cold," he peered open his eyes and saw that Sano was not alone. The girl from the window was leaning over him without a coat, but with a worried look. With a chance to finally study her face without the worry of an impending fall, Kenshin took full advantage. She was a lot prettier than he had previously thought, much too pretty to be friends with his attached friend with a jealous girlfriend.

Sano smirked, "He's fine. He's like a cat, he always lands on his feet."

The girl frowned up at the man, "He landed on his back you idiot." Rolling her eyes she looked back at Kenshin, "Excuse my cousin."

Kenshin raised a brow, "Cousin?"

A smile split across her face that he could have sworn warmed the temperature up by a few degrees, "Let me guess, he's never mentioned me."

He shook his head to her question and reached out hand. There was a certain level of dignity he wanted to preserve, and getting helped out of the bushes by the girl he would start perusing the moment he stood up would only damage it.

She shrugged and extended her hand when he was finally upright. "You must be Himura Kenshin. Sano's told me a lot about you."

Kenshin took her friendly hand after taking off his glove. Her warm skin tickled his frozen digits. "And you are..."

Sano took the offending hands and split them apart. He glared down at the red head, "Not anyone you're going to meet again."

She rolled her eyes, "He's like that with all his guy friends." She jabbed Sano in the side and ducked away from his barricading arms. She grinned as she made her way toward the doors, "Kamiya Kaoru. I'll be seeing you around. Hopefully not falling down from windows."

Kenshin watched as the teasing ends of her hair disappeared beyond the door. He could feel his friend's eyes glaring into him. He now understood what Sano had previously said about burning a hole into someone's skull.

"Don't even think about it."

Kenshin smirked. Oh, he would think about it -he had already thought about it.

Glancing up at his friend, Kenshin gave him a mischievous look. He bent down to collect the fallen ladder and shoved it into Sano's hands. "How about I do this job from the inside and you do it from out here."

Without giving the perturbed Sano a chance to retaliate he was in the building and climbing up the stairs.

Maybe fixing windows in freezing weather wouldn't be so bad. With the money he'd make, he would have more than enough for dinner and a movie for two.


End file.
